Cheap tires wearing unevenly

[spavel6]

Has anyone else experienced cheaper tires (Hankook, Kumho, etc) wearing unevenly from one to the next? I'm seeing a discreptancy between each of my Hankook Winter i*Pikes, and not in pairs. Each of the 4 tires is at a different tread depth. I've not had this experience with 1st tier manufacturers (Michelin, Conti, etc).

I can't imagine how the budget tires survive if mid-level tires do this

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Snow tires have a soft compound and will wear more noticeably if there are alignment issues. I'd get the alignment checked on the vehicle.

My $38 GT Radial snow tires seem to be wearing fine.

 

[Padawan]

I had no abnormal wear issues with my Hankook W404s and they performed extremely well overall, especially considering the cost.

 

[Pepsibottle1]

Check your alignment

 

[MNgopher]

Sounds like an alignment check is needed. With the softer rubber compound, any alignment issue is magnified by the amount of wear these have.

I'm on my second set of I-Pikes (First was the W409, Current is the RW11). Neither has had any irregular wear issues. Would recommend them without hesitation if anyone is looking for an inexpensive winter tire option.

 

[opus1]

I had a set of Kumho's on my old Malibu and didn't notice any uneven wear. Sounds like an alignment problem.

 

[SirTanon]

Has anyone mentioned yet to check your alignment?

Seriously though, tires don't wear unevenly like that unless there are other mechanical issues going on - Alignment, suspension, loose linkages, etc..

 

[JMJNet]

What car/truck are you talking about?

Different cars/trucks have different quirk.
It is not just the cheap tires.

 

[spavel6]

It's on a front wheel drive Jetta. Alignment was done after these tires came off, so perhaps the new tires won't have the same problem!

 

[SLCraig]

I have only ever seen this with alignment issues to be honest.

The Hercules tires that are on my Saturn are still wearing evenly after years of use. I am quite amazed at how well these cheap tires have held up. They are not as good in the rain anymore, but are still quiet and handle pretty well in the dry. They are about 5 years old and probably have over 60K KM on them total! Tread wear is totally even.

 

[Nick1994]

You can have an alignment that looks fine on an alignment machine, but worn out tie rods/ball joints/control arm bushings that make the tires wear weird when driving.

 

[Vuflanovsky]

I would agree. Sounds like an underlying factor causing this rather than the tire itself. I've had good luck with the Hankook tires that I've bought in the past and don't consider them "cheap". Certain Michelin and Conti models I consider overpriced first and foremost in relation to their wear performance, so I guess it's up to your particular perspective.

 

[UG_Passat]

Originally Posted By: spavel6
It's on a front wheel drive Jetta. Alignment was done after these tires came off, so perhaps the new tires won't have the same problem!


If it's a 99.5 or newer Jetta... Alignment doesn't do much in terms of camber and caster adjustments. You just have toe-in up front and nothing in the back.

They run huge camber in the back, by design. I hope you're rotating at minimum every 5,000 miles

My best wearing tire was actually Kumho (ECSTA Platinum LX).

 

[spavel6]

Originally Posted By: UG_Passat


If it's a 99.5 or newer Jetta...

They run huge camber in the back, by design. I hope you're rotating at minimum every 5,000 miles


Yes, and yes. I don't usually put more than 5k a season per car, so I rotate when I switch from winter to summer wheels/tires.

 

[UG_Passat]

The front suspension, if you need to adjust camber, you have to loosen the subframe and nudge it. But, there is very little adjustment to it. Only the toe-in is adjustable via tie road ends.

the rear suspension, is non-adjustable due to the stub axle. you can try to shim it (and they make kits), but, chances are you have a bent stub axle that needs replacement.

getting an alignment is just checking nothing is damaged, other than front toe-in.

 

[supton]

My 2004 Jetta had bad toe-in on the rear axle. So it'd feather anything, and woe on me if I didn't rotate every 5k. IMO, it was due to a tire shop lifting the car by placing a jack under the rear axle beam, dead center, to lift (three jacks to fully lift the car).

Same car would wear all seasons just fine, but two different sets of snows wound up getting flat spots. Maybe bad struts in both cases, dunno. One set was Hakka 2's, other was Nordman 2's.

 

[spavel6]

Rear beams are definitely an alignment nightmare. Shims aren't the best approach because you can shim the axle, but then you run into un-even brake wear from not similarly shimming the caliper bracket.

I don't think lifting by the axle would have done any damage - the forces exerted on the beam from going through a pot hole are significantly greater. I'd wager that at some point the car hit a pothole to throw off the rear beam.

I actually always lift and support the rear end of my MkIVs by the ends of the rear beam. Lifting by the pinch weld usually results in a bent weld, or dented rocker..

 

[supton]

One pothole? Both sides showed an equal amount of toe-in, like -0.25deg, adding to -0.49 total (off the top of my head). After looking into shims and thinking about the caliper issue, and reading how at least one high-rated mechanic didn't like shims... I simply decided if I had to rotate every 3k, it was probably my cheapest solution.

I still think it was from lifting on the beam, but whatever. From what I can tell, I was hardly the only one with the issue, so maybe the beams just slowly bend over time. Maybe every pothole does a small tweak, and after many miles, they all toe-in?

*

I've always used the rocker, and other than one time missing, never had an issue with lifting. I do wish they had more lift points, and further apart (in general on cars).

 

[spavel6]

Probably many many potholes. Your Jetta had a few miles on it, if I remember correctly.. My 400k+ Jetta's beam was pretty bad when I replaced it - the car that these particular tires were on is around 180k so perhaps the beam is starting to sag as well.

Agreed on the need for more jacking points. The MB I have has very nice rubber pads built-in for jacking points. Down-side is, if the jack is there, where do you put the jackstand?

 

[supton]

I think on the VW I've heard of taking a board and running a V groove into it, so as to have a long surface area under the pinch.

On my Camry I've taken to lifting on a large metal bracket, there is a trailing arm that goes to it. It's less than six inches from the pinch weld though. So now I use a small bottle jack to lift, as there wasn't enough space to run a floor jack & place a jack stand.

I don't have a floor jack long enough to lift from the center of a vehicle, so central jacking point is out for me also.

*

Yeah, my Jetta was 314k when I got rid of it. I think funny rear tire wear was after 150k, maybe later.